Report: From Wahhabism to IS

On Monday the 13th of April, DUNSA organized a lecture on Wahhabism and ISIS and how Saudi Arabia is involved with ISIS. The committee which organized this lecture invited three speakers. Unfortunately, one of those speakers could not make it to the lecture because of illness. However, still two amazing speakers were able to speak on the subject.Paul Aarts, UvA professor, first introduced the audience with how IS was able to establish itself. He said that two factors gave the opportunity for IS to establish, namely the 9/11 events and the Arab Spring. After 9/11, Bush invaded, as everyone knows, Iraq under false pretenses. This caused a civil war in Iraq. After the Arab spring, IS was able to establish itself and to expand. Aarts argued that it is hard, if not, impossible to fight IS for the West. After all, the West does not want to end up in another “Vietnam” he argued.Aarts also spoke about the role of Saudi Arabia and he argued that its role is more ambiguous than most people think. The state religion of Saudi Arabia is Wahabbism, but that same religion is altra orthodox. This religion does not support violence. Aarts argued that Saudi Arabia became the unintended pervayer of IS. Wahabbism and IS differ substantially. IS added violence to it. Basically, Aarts argued, IS is the unintended child of Wahabbism.Leo Kwarten, the second speaker of the night, also argued that the support of Saudi Arabia was more complex. He spoke about the proxy wars between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Iran and US will expand their relationship with their accord. Saudi Arabia’s role will be the party spoiler mostly. It will do anything to prevent a Western-Iranian dentente. Saudi Arabia mainly works through proxies and this is how Saudi Arabian money sometimes ends up in the hands of IS. However, this is unintended. It would not likely for Saudi Arabia to support IS, because IS is after all against Saudi Arabia.All in all it was a very good lecture. The speakers were both very enthusiastic and they had an enormous audience. So many people showed up to this lecture! It was fantastic to see that so many young people are concerned with this subject. It was unfortunate that none of the speakers spoke about how global terrorism was exported to Europe’s youngsters. This was mainly due to the fact that the third speaker was not able to make it to the lecture. However, the quality of the lecture was of a high standard and we hope to organize more successful lectures like this in the future!